Ancestry
by Deona Lindholm
Summary: [Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army] Raidou goes into the Akarana Corridor, not knowing just how heavy the price he has to pay is.  R&R Please!
1. Into Akarana

_Ancestry_

_Chapter 1: Into Akarana_

Within Dark-Tsukudo-Cho, a solitary figure stood upon the bridge where, in another realm, everything had begun. It was here, at Ushigome-Gaeri Bridge, that one young girl had pleaded with two detectives to kill her.

It was the very same girl that the younger of the two detectives, Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th, was going after now.

He held, within his hands, the four-colored object, the Amatsu Kanagi, as he thought about all the implications of what he was about to do, and why.

He had heard the entire ritual, the Ritual of Soul-Sending, only once, as he had chanted in his mind along with his alternate self, Raido the 14th. He would be using this very ritual, by himself, to enter a place that the Herald of Yatagarasu had told him was forbidden.

000

"_The Akarana Corridor should never be entered by humans, not even by a Devil Summoner," she had explained as Raidou, moments ago, stood before her._

"_Why?"_

"_That place allows any being, human or demon, to travel through time itself. Such a thing is truly dangerous to all living beings. With that place comes knowledge that no man should ever know, power to create or destroy that no mortal should possess."_

"_If I could avoid it, Herald, I would," Raidou replied, "But I have no choice. Kaya—I mean the demon inside her, is in that very place now. This time period is safe, but she aims to destroy the future. I have to contend with the demon and bring Kaya back safe."_

_She raised an eyebrow. "You rarely speak so much at one time."_

"_Yes."_

"_So you intend to enter anyway?"_

"_Yes."_

"_There will be a price to pay."_

"_I know."_

"_It will mean greater hardship than you know or have gone through."_

"_That doesn't matter to me."_

"_So you say...but it will bring you much grief."_

"_I don't care. I'll do what must be done."_

_She sighed and tilted her head slightly. A moment later, she replied, "Yatagarasu agrees with you. Very well. But know that even with his permission, the price to pay will not change one bit."_

"_It changes nothing."_

_She nodded, then said, "Ushigome-gaeri Bridge, in Dark Tsukudo-Cho. Hurry."_

_000 _

Now, Raidou held the stick in both hand and began to chant.

_Tohokami emitama..._

_Tohokami emitama..._

He had a feeling that Raido had been completely drained when he had done this before...just as he himself had been. There was no time to wonder if he would wind up like that again.

_Ahariya asobasutomausanui..._

_Asakurani..._

_Ibukidonushitohukami..._

_Orimashimase..._

The words were spoken very softly, almost a whisper on the last one. He slowly let go of the object, when now floated by itself. As he put his hands together very slowly in the way he had seen, it rose into the air and was suddenly vertical.

_Hurube yurayurato hurube..._

Then, beneath his closed eyes, he saw a red flash of light, and heard a voice speak.

"_Be brave, and have faith in yourself!"_

_Doctor Tsukumo, whose spirit was a bright flame..._

He knew, without looking, that the many hands were reaching up from the ground. He felt a couple of them take hold.

A green flash...

"_Even though I don't have a clue what's going on, I'm rooting for you."_

_Tae Asakura, with the stubborness of the earth..._

Immediately afterwards, another flash...

"_...and you've got moxie, kid."_

_Satake, always calm and cool, like water..._

He felt more hands, one on his shoulder, but did not, could not, let that distract him now.

One last flash, blue light...

"_If anyone can pull this off, I know it's you."_

_Shouhei Narumi...Heaven Prism, the most precious..._

His eyes snapped open and his head up as he spoke the final words in a louder tone, the last one with much emphasis.

_Haraheyare...haraheyare...!_

Now he felt the multitude of hands pull him into the ground and shut his eyes again. The first time he had undergone this, the sensation of quickly going from light to total black in a single instant had been...nasty.

00000

When felt his feet hit something smooth and hard, Raidou opened his eyes again.

All around him was something very close to what he had seen in the dimensional rift that he and Gouto had been before when Rasputin had sent them into it at Waden One of Dark Sakuradayama. In front of him was a long set of stairs.

He nearly turned around, then immediately regretted it when he nearly lost his footing. Raidou regained his balance, took a few steps up, then slowly turned around.

Behind him was a large, cube-shaped hole.

He took a moment to get his breathing back under control before going up the stairs. Beside the foot of the steps was a yellow human-shaped being. When he tried talking to it, the language spoken really threw him for a loop.

_Coming in the flesh...? Transcribing prior...? Unstuck in time...? No good...I don't understand._

As he continued up the stairs, something unfolded from the back of his mind.

000

_Since becoming the 14th Raidou Kuzunoha, his life had certainly stayed difficult...but in a new way._

_Raidou moved from his small town to the Capital, which had been known as Edo in the past. The good thing there was that he still went to Yumizuki High School, which was now closer than it had been before._

_The hard part, acting as counter-balance, had been saying good-bye to his family._

_His mother stayed in her position, sitting on the floor, but her eyes were sparkling._

"_Yes," his father had said, "You will be moving to the Capital, now that you have taken the mantle...but we will not go with you."_

"_Why?" was the only thing he asked._

"_You are only 16, almost 17, yes. But now that you have become a Devil Summoner, you are, in the eyes of your ancestors, an adult. It is time that you live on your own."_

"_That's not the only reason, is it?"_

_He did not reply to the question, but merely said, "Go and pack your things. You will stay in this house no longer." He made a wave of dismissal._

_Raidou nodded, bowed with respect, then went to pack all of his things._

_When he arrived in the Capital, the first thing he did was to find the Shinoda Shrine, where he met the Herald of Yatagarasu...and received the Mystic Eye. After that, it was to find a place to live._

_The fortunate (and hard part to counter-balance) was that he would be living with his boss, Shouhei Narumi, in the same building as the Narumi Detective Agency._

_He thought about all of this while he was in class one day, staring out one of the windows._

"_...aaru," he heard a strict voice call, "Saaru Tatsuro!"_

_He blinked, shifting his attention to the male teacher that was in front of him._

"_Have you taken to daydreaming now, Saaru?"_

"_N-no, sir," he replied, "Just thinking about some work."_

"_It is good and honorable that you take your job after-school seriously, Tatsuro, but keep your work outside of the classroom during school. I will not tell you this again. Is that understood?"_

"_Yes, sensei."_

"_Good," he replied with satisfaction, then continued, "Now, if you will open your books and turn to the section on Edo's founding..."_

_000_

It seemed strange (more like eerie), how Raidou came out of that bit of reminiscing to find himself battling some stray demons, with Belial by his side.

Under normal circumstances, that sort of mind-wandering (or daydreaming) would be considered deadly. For Raidou and the demon, that is.

After sheathing his katana, the Devil Summoner looked about him. The corridors had begun to branch off, with blue, electrical spheres cutting off some of the paths. In front of one of the clear directions was a strange, mechanical item, as well as a soul. Upon talking, Raidou learned that it was called an Hourglass and housed not only visions of certain time periods, but also controlled the distortions.

_It doesn't look like any hourglass I've seen._

"You call that an hourglass?" Belial asked, hissing, "You've got to be kiddin', man."

"We have to destroy it if we want to advance," Raidou replied and walked towards the object.

"I've got a bad feelin' about the thing."

_So do I,_ the young man admitted to himself, then reached out to touch it.

The first images that he saw in his mind made him feel physically ill.

_Mountains of bodies..._

_a mushroom cloud on ground and in the air..._

_a strange man in another country, with a tiny mustache, calling for a Master Race..._

_What in the gods' name is this...?_

He didn't know if he had said this out loud or not, but he heard the soul beside him say, "Anno 1940s. The stuff is from the second World War. Now there was some bad lotto. Believe me, you don't want to know more about it...or that atomic bomb you saw."

_Atomic bomb?!_

Now he really _did _ feel sick.

Before he could move a hand to his katana, another image began from his mind, and then spread out before his eyes. This one, though, was a lot more familiar...

000

_Saaru Tatsuro was training with his katana and pistol behind his home, wearing his school uniform, including the cap._

_Everyday, after coming home from school, he paused only long enough to drink some green tea before going right into his lessons. A target range had been set up for the pistol, as well as straw-men in multiple places. From there, he would first attack with only the katana, then the gun, and then both at one time, with variations._

_It was using both that was a bit difficult, but he had managed to get the knack of._

_After all, he would be the first in his family, perhaps the first Devil Summoner, to use both regularly in battle._

_**That's if I pass the trial, that is.**_

_Tatsuro had known, from the first time he had seen a demon, what it would mean for him. Rather than being pressed into it, had volunteered himself for the training, ever since he had been eleven._

_One could easily say that it was also when he stopped being a child._

_The afternoon of this day, though, was warm, with a cooling breeze blowing from the south._

_It was the sort of weather and season (early summer) that he liked the most._

_As he used a sleeve to wipe the sweat from his face (he had been practicing with the katana on the straw-men), he heard talking coming from the house. The voices belonged to his father and a woman, one that he had never heard before. Whoever she was, her tone carried more than a hint of authority._

_He turned towards the firing range and made sure that his pistol was loaded and ready for use. The teenager heard two sets of footsteps behind him and continued what he was doing by aiming at one of the targets in the range, then fired three shots._

_The shots were either in the center, or very close to it._

"_Saaru Tatsuro," the stranger woman spoke._

_He put the pistol in its holster then turned and bowed respectfully towards the woman._

_Tatsuro had never seen this person before, who was shrouded in a cloak of black, with a hood that hid her eyes, and otherwise gray clothing._

"_I am he."_

_She frowned slightly, and continued, "Saaru Tatsuro. You are summoned to the Kuzunoha Shrine. You are to undergo the Summoner's Trial. Come with me at once."_

"_Yes, ma'am."_

_He made sure that he had his katana, his gun (nothing wrong with double-checking), 8 tubes and his cape that was black on the outside and purple on the inside._

_Now, it was time. Time for him to prove his mettle in the Trial, or die there._

_000_

_Before he could take a breath, another image flashed across, this one much more recent, when he first came across Ichimokoren in the Daidouji residence, Dark realm..._

_That had been a very nasty battle, considering that he had been very new to detective work. The demon made itself invulnerable by closing its eye, then summoning Turdaks. Only after calling a Volt-type demon and defeating the Turdaks did he have a chance._

_And now, he had to relieve it again._

_Thankfully, Raidou had done precisely what he had remembered, having the demon electrocute the one-eye monster and slashing at it while it was paralyzed._

_In retrospect, it seemed almost as if this time around, the demon wasn't as hard as he thought it had been._

_000_

When he finally opened his eyes, Raidou saw that he was back in the Akarana Corridor, standing in front of the Hourglass that his fingers had grazed.

Somehow, though, during the onslaught of images, he had managed to destroy the device.

_It still doesn't look like an Hourglass. Gods above...are all the Hourglasses going to be like this...? Is this the price that the Herald spoke of, that will cause grief...?_


	2. The Price to Pay

_Chapter 2: The Price to Pay_

As Raidou and Belial passed through the area that had been blocked by a distortion a few moments ago, the demon said, "You ok? For a while, you went all stiff, man, like you'd been turned to stone."

"Yes," he replied, "Those Hourglasses..."

"Yeah, it did a mental number on you."

"That's one way to put it."

"Ya know, I meant what I said before in Ginza. After this mess, Alice, Neibiros and I are outta here. We don't need humans to be messing with us. Uh, no offense, Summoner. The demons in the Dark Realm'll be after us, too. We'll find somewhere, just for the 3 of us to live quiet lives."

Raidou nodded and said something very softly he had not said before, "When it happens, then go with my blessings. I hope you find the quiet lives that you want."

That made Belial blink in surprise.

"Thanks, man," the demon managed to say a moment later.

00000

Raidou was starting to see another aspect of what the Herald meant by a heavy price to pay for coming here.

After arriving, he learned that the demons here were rather strong...and the farther he went from Taisho 20 (He learned that the West had called his time by another name: 1920), the stronger and unfamiliar they became.

The beings that seemed to act as though they really were not in the Corridor he learned were called Lost Souls...while the others with the strange language he was beginning to understand.

The next area that he could see had an Hourglass, he couldn't even reach. That irritated Raidou, though he never showed it. What he did, though, was to go on to the next time period.

A soul nearby explained that it was the 1970's. After hearing that, Raidou noticed that this time _did_ have an Hourglass that he could easily reach.

"Ya sure about this, man?" Belial asked, "One of us could easily take this machine on for you..."

"No, it's all right," Raidou replied, "I'll be fine. Just be ready."

Something inside the Devil Summoner wasn't so sure that he would be "fine", but he pushed it away and reached out to touch the Hourglass.

Like the first time, images flooded his mind and appeared before his eyes...

_People in shops everywhere, frenzied and looking for toilet paper, of all things..._

_A mountain retreat, what was important about it, he didn't know..._

_Planes filled with red...red what, he had no idea..._

He must have been talking out loud, because a nearby soul said, "Lemme tell ya about those, dude. The mountain place is really a military base...and the planes of red...that's napalm...a very nasty kind of bomb. Burns skin right off of you, leaving nerves and bones beneath..."

The words about the base still left him confused. The mention of Napalm and its effects, though, caused a wave of nausea to go through him. Raidou barely was able to stand, much less stay in contact with the Hourglass. After the nausea passed, another sensation filled him: sorrow and pain.

_This...is what humans will do...?_

"You okay, Summoner?"

As he was about to nod, another thing unfolded before his eyes...

00000

_A younger boy, with short, black hair was giggling as a small, white being with a blue cap was tickling him. The creature he had met days ago, but kept secret from his family. It (no, he) was definitely cute, and even if he felt cold, there was still lots of fun to be had._

_Take yesterday, for example. They were in a clearing in the nearby forest and in the heat of summer, he giggled as his friend made lots of snow to make snowmen and snowballs with. That had been fun for both of them._

"_You're really funny, ho," the white creature said, giggling right along with him. "Wanna play hide-and-seek, ho?"_

_The boy didn't know why his playmate always said "ho" at the end of his sentences, but it didn't bother him that much._

"_Okay," he answered, "But I'll hide and you seek this time."_

"_Hee hee-ho, you got it!"_

_That was when he heard a voice coming from right behind them._

"_Tatsuro, lunch is—" His mother called._

"_By the Gods above! What business do you have with my son, demon!" his father exclaimed, then demanded._

_The boy winced, realizing that they had seen his friend._

"_We're just playing, ho," was the reply._

"_Just playing? With a human child?"_

"_Hey, I'm a little kid too, ho!"_

"_Tatsuro, go inside with your mother. Now."_

_The boy replied, "Yes, father," and then said to his friend, "We'll play later, okay?"_

"_You got it, ho!"_

_As his father and his friend continued to talk, Tatsuro's mother had him sit down inside the home._

"_Tatsuro, how long had you been with that demon?"_

"_Demon...? Jack Frost is my friend."_

"_How long?"_

"_Only a few days. What's going on?"_

_She sighed and said, "Tatsuro, I was going to tell you this when you were older, but...you need to know now."_

_He remained silent, listening._

"_This family, the Saaru, has a very mystical lineage."_

"_Mys-tee-cal?"_

"_Yes...capable of strange powers that others are not. Powers like healing people with the worst injuries, the ability to see into the future..."_

"_And...?"_

_She sighed and asked, "Have you heard the legend of the Kuzunoha clan?"_

"_The Devil Summoners?"_

"_Yes. Once in a while, a member of the Saaru family can see and interact with demons. Such a person usually will become a Devil Summoner of the Kuzunoha clan."_

"_Don't the Kuzunohas beat up demons? Demons like Jack Frost?"_

"_Only the ones that mean to cause humans harm. Devil Summoners can also call on demons and fight side-by-side with them."_

"_Wow!"_

_While the two continued to talk, Tatsuro's father came in._

"_That demon...he truly is just a little child and a playmate, just as he said. As long as he doesn't harm anyone, he is welcome here."_

_Tatsuro breathed a sigh of relief._

"_Father," the boy asked, then took a breath before continuing, "If I become a Devil Summoner, would Jack Frost be able to fight by my side?"_

_He looked hard at the boy then remarked, "You told him."_

_She nodded silently._

"_Yes, your friend would be able to. I'll tell you now, though, that day is long off, and you might not even be able to find him by then."_

_He nodded then said the words that would seal his destiny._

"_I want to begin training, to become a Devil Summoner."_

_00000_

_Before he could shake off the effects, he immediately remembered another more-recent battle, this one being the first time he had battled a Red Cape._

_That battle had been worse than the one with Ichimokoren in its own way. At least in the first one, he was able to move around even as he had gotten hurt. Here, though...whenever the Red Cape used a beam of light, he would be so dizzy that he couldn't walk, much less fight. He counted himself lucky that his demon had not gotten into the beam's path as well. If it had, they would have both been destroyed._

_After that battle, Raidou had tired himself out, and had managed not to show it as he and a just-showed-up Narumi talked to Denpachi..._

_The next thing he knew, they were back at the office, and Narumi was shaking his head as he said, "You've been wearing yourself out. Go upstairs and get some sleep. You need it."_

_**Yes...sleep...**_

_He went up to his room and didn't bother getting undressed, but plopped on the bed, ready to slip into sleep._

_**Mmm...sounds very good...**_

_He closed his eyes and was easily drifting away._

"_Hey! Wake up, ho!"_

_**Hm? Who...? I don't remember that voice...**_

_He opened his eyes, but didn't see anyone in the room. Sighing, he started again to go to sleep._

"_C'mon, man! Snap out of it!"_

"_Raidou-ho!"_

_He felt something like a jerking motion before his room and bed vanished from his sight..._

_00000_

When Raidou stayed as stiff as stone after destroying the Hourglass, the demon knew that there was trouble. What he didn't know was how to snap his Summoner out of it.

He grumbled as he accidentally opened another of the tubes, bringing forth a Jack Frost.

"Two of us out at one time, ho?"

"No time, our Summoner's in trouble."

The snow creature looked at the dying mechanism and the human that was standing before it.

"Oh no!"

"Yeah."

"Hey! Wake up, ho!" Jack Frost called out.

There didn't seem to be any reaction. The two demons looked at each other and nodded.

"C'mon, man! Snap out of it!" Belial called out, walking close to the still Summoner. He hated having to do this, but if they didn't do something, they'd lose Raidou.

"Raidou-ho!"

Belial grunted and wrapped an arm around the Summoner's waist and pulled hard. It took a couple of pulls before he was able to separate Raidou from the wrecked system.

The larger demon put the prone figure on the floor while the icy being checked out Raidou.

"His heart's beating very slowly, ho," he said as he cast Dia on him.

"Is he going to live?"

Jack Frost said nothing but cast the same spell two more times.

"Well?"

"There...his heartbeat and breathing are a lot more normal," the smaller demon replied, "He should be waking up any minute now."

The two demons heard a moan a moment after that was said, and the prone being on the floor began to slowly move as he opened his eyes.

"Whew. Don't scare me like that, boss," Belial hissed, "Man, you're liable to give this poor demon a heart attack."

"Hn...?"

Jack Frost said, "You stayed hee-ho hooked up to that Hourglass after destroying it, ho."

"We had to yank you away from it," Belial added with a grumble.

"Hmm...thank you," he said and managed to get up. He blinked, shifting to his left.

"Whoa there, Summoner," the winged, scaled demon said, "There's a Dragon Cave about a corridor behind us. It's just me sayin', man, but I think ya need to rest over there before we go on."

Raidou blinked, nodded, then lead the way back towards the Dragon Cave. A Summoner, as well as any demon, would easily be able to tell where it was, thanks to flows of purple and white power coming from a spot in the floor, or ground.

As they neared it, the Devil Summoner started to put the demons in the tubes, then decided against it. He was exhausted from the near-lethal incident with the second Hourglass. If he had slipped into sleep while connected to it, he would have either become unstuck in time...or lost within himself while his body gave out...

_Everything has a price to pay here, it seems._

"We'll keep watch over you-ho," Jack Frost said.

"Yeah, between the two of us, any demons that come here while you get some sleep is gonna be toast or a popsicle."

Raidou nodded, then started towards the Cave itself when he heard the icy fairy-like demon say something.

"Hee hee. After we're done with this case and spot, I think I'm gonna make it snow for Raidou. Just like I did in the forest for him when he was a kid, ho..."

That made him pause.

_Just as I wondered when I was a child...one of my demons is the Jack Frost that was my playmate...who would have guessed it?_

He couldn't help but chuckle and then enter the cave itself. This time, it was not to record thoughts or findings, but to sleep within its protective field.

Just as within the Hourglass vision, it didn't take more than a mere moment to drift off to sleep.


End file.
